you can do what they're doing in california preparing for alternative energy sources present blackouts. let's go to support of. you watching r t the headlines for you there be a future of the arctic scene by leading ecologist and politicians as the burning issue with most experts brainstormed place to explore and extract the region's mineral rich and the form is focusing on how to protect the seabed to exploit its potentially vast reserves oil and get us. heading in the right direction and pushing for teamwork on the sidelines or even somebody later with russia say they're almost sold off to a corporation and discuss a joint missile defense project. you've got going to present your own people you

must be autistic dr no. brainy and president mahmoud ahmadinejad's arrived in new york is mobbed by protests but while some are calling out all the stops to portray him as the enemy others are questioning the costs of the campaign. but more news in time but first it's all a tease into the show spotlight talks to the president of iceland to get his take on the arctic form currently underway in moscow. for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

spotlights the info on. the show is. graham's. about the future of the art heads of state politicians from the northern countries have gathered to discuss the problems they reach. on the show today the president. is here to discuss the arctic the islands' a bit to join the european union and other problems faced by his country and europe in general. the warming climate is melting ice in the arctic and allowing access

to areas wants unreachable by vessels these areas could contain billions of tons of oil and gas the countries bordering the arctic claiming the reaches and iceland is one of them the president of. the green sun has come to russia to take part in the forum two thousand and ten he's known as an advocate against climate change also iceland was badly hit by the economic crisis two years ago the banking system almost collapsed and has left the country. heavily debt president olafur ragnor has criticised the i.m.f. for letting down iceland. for a welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us here here in this program well first of all let's talk about let's talk about the order to climate change has has put the economic expiration of the arctic high on the agenda of the arctic nations at least yes arctic is one of the regions that.

practically untouched by human activity at least a lot of places there so what would you call the priority saving the riches of the arctic we're learning how to how to explore and how to how to utilize the riches of the region. there are many reasons why we should be concerned about the arctic but it's also interesting to note that for. social you have been people living indigenous people living all over the arctic. but when the modern times start to moving. our western civilization on the russian ship of the shoshone or with this area we gradually started to discover it but then when the

cold war close to duff akkad so in fact it is only in the last twenty years or so that we have started to do the arctic. almost in a completely new way and at the same time climate change. speeded up so now we have a shift to a shoe and where the article war what i sometimes call the north and recession regions house become one of the most important and crucial areas. all for all of us and the number of reasons for it one day so she mentioned the vast amount of the un top to energy russia was of the world are to be find home in the arctic on the north the regions the second is that climate change is happening three times faster in that part of the world as well on the melting of the ice in greenland and in the north the reasons could have

a dramatic impact on the russian of the world and then of course the third reason is that with the melting of the ice we could almost say unfortunately there will be new shipping routes opening up which will link asia to europe and america in a way that it will shorten the distance by almost a half and have an impact on the world trade almost like the sure wish come up the one hundred years ago and in all of this you are absolutely correct the concerns for the in one moment and the pressure away show if this is. of the ocean on the long forces is of paramount importance at the core or a ship among the countries in the region russia my own come from the united states

canada on the other nordic countries is absolutely crucial because we have to balance how well you wish the arctic with the environmental sustainability the arctic is believed to contain a quarter of the world's discovered oil and gas five nations are claiming their right to a share of the riches spotlight in the dimmy there are reports. global warming is heating up the debate over who owns which part of the arctic the melting ice allows exploration and development of previously inaccessible oil and gas in the area russia the us canada denmark and norway have all claims to a piece of the arctic reaches three of the five nations pin their hopes on the among us of reach russia was the first to submit to the un its claim to the underworld to mountain range in two thousand and one the country argued the reach

was an extension of the russian continental shelf the u. when asked for more evidence to collect it russian scientists went forty three hundred meters under the arctic ice in two thousand and seven the team had it by our two children girls give it some pose of the shelf and celebrated the first expedition of its kind by planting a russian flag on the seabed at the north pole the west labelled a symbolic gesture as political issues in russia of them pirelli stick conditions russia has also invoked on a diplomatic solution it's signed an agreement with norway bringing to an end the footie you dispute over a potential it and the jury each area in the barents sea the russian and canadian foreign ministers have agreed. when should drilling who owns what part of the filament reach the arctic nations i know gives a win evidence to prove their rights to parts of the disputed territory. mr president what was the reaction of ordinary iceland there is and the politicians

in your country when the russians put their national flag under the ice on the north pole was it what was it a big deal i thought to be of be considered a very clever little p.r. exercise. not because in for us especially but because it woke up the russian of the world and i personally can't to welcome to it because i had been trying for ten years to speak about the arctic issues to people in europe in the united states and elsewhere and there was very little interest but suddenly when the russians put the flock of the bottom of the arctic ocean everybody woke up but i realized times how to write so i think when we look back to warsaw are welcomed opening court to the rest of the world that now we need to come together and and create

a successful framework for corporation mr president. does iceland claim well like russia or like canada there's a claim its share of the arctic shelf and what do you think in general is the best way to tackle this problem in order to avoid competition and conflict one fortunately we have the law of the sea. which took a long time to create my country through our come paid for the extension of the economic zones first in the fifty's and then in the ninety's some of these. considerable role in creating the law of the she so we already have an international framework a legal framework where we come shoulder these issues and i think they can all be dealt with within the framework of them or the seat the united states needs to ratify the role of the sheep but although eight thousand dropped if i did already

hopes erving it so i don't think that is the problem. what we need to do is to strengthen the corporation among the arctic countries we have to build the arctic council which so far has been successful but rather limited to what being a stronger body so you will when you say limited you mean the more countries have to go i don't know no more more issues. because when it was a stop list it was only agreed that it will deal with limited issues but it has proved to be a very effective and productive so i think now the countries thirty eight countries start all members of the all to council are ready to strengthen the corporations through the offer to council so far as iceland is concern are already recent before being in walton these are perhaps three or four. when we look at where

our. and our economic shown to reach is. into the arctic area so from a geographical point of view we are a part of this region secondly we are the closest neighbor to greenland and greenland is the largest ice in the arctic and the corporation between iceland and greenland. very important to link in this whole exercise but thirdly with respect to the new shipping routes the with the melting of the ice when the container ships or the oil tanker shore the commercial ships come from china or ratio along the russian coasts into the atlantic iceland is in the middle so i love the strategically best place to wall the countries to serve also hope or also serving station or war as a base for the potentially huge commercial traffic that will link

to europe and america in this new. subject i want to talk about is the european union iceland has stayed away from joining the e.u. for a pretty long time now what in your opinion made iceland is change their point of view and subject well first of all there is already. still a debate in my country whether we should go in or not but i think the main reason was following the collapse of the banking sector and the financial crisis to years ago many people thought that maybe we had to and an era where smaller countries that wanted to be globally octave couldn't really maintain their own currency so probably the main reason why we

moved from a sheet curation off minority. for a. minority for applying to what one might europe wanting to apply in the parliament the greek was. the european union currency called corp we are still called songs about the fisheries issue so i think the negotiations will have to deal with those concerns because it's optional to clear up though the people of iceland don't want to lose control over the ocean resources or all their natural resources so in this case the outcome of the negotiations will be crucial when many countries have joined the european union in the past. the negotiations with just a formality in our case i think they will determine whether iceland will be a member or not says all of them that crimson the president.

did absolutely right up to great so stay with. every month we give you the future you understand how to get. the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world. knowledge on our key. welcome back to spotlight on our northern just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is all of what i write in the grimace and the president of iceland how we started talking about the possible and

membership of your country. in the years which brings not only benefits but also new problems new challenges you mention one of them which is which is fresh air which is crucial for for your country and the other one another crucial issue maybe maybe immigration is the society in your country ready to face these new challenges no i don't think the immigration will be an issue because to gather with norway has now for nearly twenty years been a member of the european economic area which means that we are a member of the in the market of the european union and then secondly we also joined the agreement to gather with norway so we have now for almost twenty years lived with the shit you ation that there is a free movement of people between iceland and the european union so i don't think there will be any change with respect to the moment of the people because part of

the actually although we say iceland this outside the european union because of the european economic area agreement between iceland and norway and the european union and because we are part of the schengen we are in many respects in sight the european union but we are not part of the monetary policy we are not part of the political corp we are not part of the fisheries on the culture or policy but in number of other areas we are an intercom part of the union so it's a kind of a motion to asian where the moment of the people was decided almost twenty years ago but the fact of the month. in iceland we have a relatively high proportion of people born elsewhere by european standards we have about six seven eight percent of the those who live in iceland were born elsewhere they come from many different countries they come from poland the nordic countries

they come from. they come from the the from. welcome countries and they live in the villages and towns. and so fall the house and really in my country been any tension or conflicts us you have seen for example in denmark or in sweden us you refer to it so we have so far so cheated to have a harmonious relationship between those who have recently arrived in iceland from all the countries and those who live there for a long time there is a number of. optimists the advocates on the journey of the e.u. in your country who say that if or when i aslan joins the european union it will no longer have any need of remaining in the nato do you agree do you think that that iceland this prize the it's the choice of either or or you may stay in the way to being a member of the european union always

a all due respect i mean i've never heard this argument in my own country so i don't think this is a strong opinion there is no linkage in the debate tonight on between the european union discussion and the nato discussion. or off nato but we have never had any military forces of our own so we have not been a part of the nato military corp apart from the fact that the americans had a base in ice on which they closed on the three years ago so for three years now we have not had any military activity in my country so i don't think there is side the war situation with respect to nato or the european union well back in two thousand and eight i have the night from asia here the president of iceland has surprised the russian ambassador by inviting russia to use the careful i think every base in

. iceland what did happen what do you have in mind what what made you to make such as a political is this this is not a true story really although the us at the time of extortion is a vertical friend of mine i actually met him last night when i came to moscow but this was a story that came out in the newspapers and didn't really have any basis . what was perhaps. these the the small part of this story was as i mentioned before for over half a century the american military base in iceland and the bush administration decided to close the base down so now we have out the former base area very interesting location which we have called donna flunked accent or actual

ns where we and why people to come and study of you is stop is to university be oh stop east many id companies we have to stop it is done aviation college the trains pilots on the air traffic controllers and all those and we have invited all the nations not just russia but all those whose son pilots an aviation people the air controllers and all the us to trade out this aviation college to the former american base in iceland and why do we do that because. i thought this in the middle of the atlantic so the weather conditions are sometimes very tough and there's a great and sudden marri ations in the weather so this airport is an ideal place for trading off pilots and air controllers on and they want to wish topless of partnership with ice something they should respect us all the countries are interested in i know there have been discussions between this nation college and china for example and we will be very happy to do well as far as i know russia

rejected the. this proposal it seems like it was in the other one i think it was not a proposal at all those like an idea though it was a report that came out didn't know which impressed we didn't really have any foundation whatsoever but anyway is this reports and the way you talk about it right now shows that iceland doesn't consider russia to be any threat well i stand there doesn't consider nato whoever also to be a threat do you really see any threat for you countries in europe in the world no not really not well that makes you pretty different from many other countries in the world which was maybe easier because you national had to kind of through well maybe we we all the normal country maybe we could push to show that all the countries should cool day before we have for a long time even during the cold war heart of very productive relationship with

russia for example in the fifty's. when the cold war already started russia became a crucial trading partner over icelandic fish products and we imported for decades all years and petroleum from russia and in fact and you might think it's funny when you look back on it the american military base in iceland because they had to buy the oil on the patrol room from the ice on the competition but they have to import it from russia so this american military base in iceland or should run on russian oil or russian petroleum a during the cold war which perhaps a lot about how we look at ourselves and now as i pointed out to you before we have forced three years been a country without any military forces whatsoever so i think i still disavow recalled examples but it is possible to be an open free and secure country with old

beijing your foreign policy or your poor. on the premise that all the nations are threatened and with respect to the arctic on the north of new you should we look at the russia prime already partner in the a successful development off the arctic on the north the regions on those one of the reason why i'm participating in this conference here in mosco because we have now for a number of years been advocating that russia on iceland on the all the countries should create a better brought constructive and positive corporation mr president you mentioned the crisis and the crisis really really hit your country pretty strongly the economy which is still suffering still overcoming the results well recently as there was a surprising victory of the best party recently founded by comedian john no hard and you can say yeah oh well this it means that iceland is are fed up by

tradition politics how would you how would you characterize the political situation in a country that seems to be very stable well i could talk about that for long time because as you might know i was a former professor of political science so i also have an academic research and where you have enough time. well about a day this isn't exactly of the sure you'd like to share you referred to or municipal election it was an election in the competence of ray kelly but there were also local elections as well and the paradoxical result of those local elections where in some towns including recovery new parties and new content that you're caught to great success could be interpreted. like a just the old type of politics in all the parts of the country the old polity is still maintain a strong hold but i think it is optional to clear the banking crisis the financial

crisis the economic difficulties have rooted. all road normal politics in a way. this new party is one evidence i also remind . the government that was in office whether the banks collapse of resigned a few months later we had to call the parliamentary elections there were protests and demonstrations in the streets of iceland which is pretty unusual so the appearance of this political party is not the only side of the new political situation within our democratic system but the important thing is that the protests always comes through though the democratic manuals so i don't thing out democratic system is in any way any way being threatened thank you thank you very much for being with us i know you're just thrilling as it will be to thank you and just to

remind you that my guest on the show today was all afoot and i mean this isn't the president. and this is from now from all of us here spotlight would be back with more friends than comments on what's going on in and outside russia and so then they are writing and taking.

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